A number of sports or recreational activities require the attachment of a user's body part (frequently a foot) to a piece of equipment via a binding in order to allow the user to control the equipment. For example, snow skiing, snowboarding, waterskiing, wakeboarding, and the like all generally employ a binding that attaches a skier's foot (or shoe/boot) to a board or ski. However, unlike many other attachment mechanisms that are designed to detach (or release) only in response to one or more specific user inputs (pressing a button, moving the object in a certain way, etc.), ski bindings typically are designed to release in response to an external stressor e.g., in the event of a fall so as to avoid or reduce significant injury. However, mechanisms to facilitate this “stress-based” release, can be challenging to design, as the force and stresses placed on the binding during normal use can be quite significant and an unexpected/undesired release during normal activity can also result in significant injury. Because stress-based releases typically come from unexpected and unpredictable angles, it is almost always desirable for the binding system to enable release in virtually any direction. Moreover, different users with different skill sets, levels of experience, or desired activities may have significantly different desired tolerance levels for the factors such as the force or torque that are required to trigger a stress-based release. (Consider for example, the varied release tolerances of a beginning or recreational water-skier, a beginning or recreational snow skier/boarder, a professional slalom skier (water or snow), a downhill racer, a mogul skier, or an aerialist.) Furthermore, for obvious reasons that tend to be consistent across a variety of sports equipment, is it generally desirable for the binding to be lightweight and have a low or small profile on the ski. However most current binding systems suffer from some combination of: limited degrees of freedom of releasability, excess weight, or contact distance between boot and ski. Accordingly, there is a need for a binding system that addresses each of these concerns.
Accordingly, there is a great need for lightweight, low profile bindings that have easily adjustable tolerances and which enable release in virtually any number of incremental rotations and directions.